In Liar"s Poker, Michael Lewis described an investment banker as "a member of a master race of deal makers." This book was written in the 1980s, and his description may be a little dramatic, but i-banking is still one of the most fast-paced and lucrative industries ever.

Investment banking is, in fact, neither investing nor banking. Broadly, investment bankers work to raise capital and provide investment advice for the bank"s clients.

The industry breaks down into three main categories:

Corporate finance (sometimes known as CorpFin), the process of raising money for corporate clients, lies at the core of the traditional investment bank.

Sales and trading is the sector of investment banking usually portrayed by Hollywood. Salespeople and traders buy and sell securities and commodities. It is a high-pressure, market-driven culture.

Research analysts generally focus on either fixed income or equity. They work to predict the movement of specific stocks, and their advice is extremely powerful in the industry.

Major Players

The "bulge bracket" consists of the largest of the full-service investment banks. Top-tier names include Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Salomon Smith Barney, Lehman Brothers, UBS Warburg, Credit Suisse First Boston, Deutsche Bank, and J.P. Morgan Chase.

Trends

In the last weeks of 1999, the Glass-Steagall Act was repealed. Created in the wake of the 1929 stock market crash, this law was intended to separate commercial banking from investment banking. Investment banks have been lobbying against the act for years, hoping to become one-stop shops for financial services. Their wish finally came true, and there have since been many mergers.

More and more investment banks are creating their own private equity funds. Although they started the VC industry in the 1960s, private firms took over in the "70s and "80s. The "90s began to see more and more I-banks creating their own investment funds once again.

Some of the large investment banks have joined forces. Morgan Stanley Dean Witter merged with Discover, and Salomon Brothers and Smith Barney have become Salomon Smith Barney, which is now part of Citigroup. Credit Suisse First Boston forked over more than $11 billion to acquire Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, and Chase and J.P. Morgan merged to form J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.